This blog is kept by Anziano Clay Lacey's family. The blog will include his general emails and pictures. Updates will be posted on Wednesdays after each new email is received. We hope you enjoy! (This is not an official site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

This is way crazy as time ticks down and it's a weird sensation that is hard to describe! There are a lot of different emotions all mixed together as I reach the end. I'm just not going to think much about it and keep working hard!

I am so excited for these new changes however! There are some pretty amazing things happening with this new overload of missionaries and in these transfers President has opened up many new cities for sister missionaries! Even the Napoli zone will have sisters after about 30 or 40 years without them!

The thing that effects me the most right now is that I'm in a three some companionship until I finish and I'm excited about that! My new companion is Anziano Zito, an Italian! I have wanted an Italian companion so bad throughout my entire mission and now I finally can finish with one! I am really glad that it is him also because when we did a three day split when Anziano Juhasz had to fly down to Palermo for his residence permit me and Anziano Zito got along great! He is a little older and we manage to get into very serious and inspirational conversations so I am going to be spending the 'ultimi giorni' with a true friend! I feel very lucky and besides, everyone says that serving with two companions is a lot of fun!

We have tried so hard to set up other appointments with Erica and Andrea but they left town for vacation. Since they are school bus drivers they get the regular school holidays and the past week has been vacation time. They said that we can meet up this week sometime so I'm hoping to get a few more lessons in with them and really 'leave' them with my testimony.

Other than that we have been contacting many ex-investigators that we have dropped in the past to recontact them and set up some kind of meeting before I leave not only for the motive to say goodbye but to also try and restart the fire and interest that they had before.

We are teaching Kevin, the fifteen year old boy from the Philippines, and his girlfriend Dalin and they are doing great. Kevin is reading a ton from the Book of Mormon and we just need to get him to church! He told us that he has already finished 2 Nephi! We are using Janus and Deejay Silva with him in our lessons and they do well translating if a specific point isn't covered very well.

On Friday we had a great special conference with Elder Callister and he is a great man and a great teacher. He basically just went over the Plan of Salvation with us and taught such simple doctrine in a marvelous way from an interesting point of view. The new Elder Di Feo who was called to be an area seventy was there also. President Kelly with his words also really touched my heart when he bore his testimony.

On Saturday we did a split with the Anziani from Ostia and I was with Anziano Ginolfi from Ontario. We have known each other ever since the MTC but on that split we really bonded (especially because the members invited us to play soccer that morning) and we became really good friends! When he gets home next transfer we are already planning on going out to Victoria Gardens and seeing a movie at the Edwards theater! He is a really great guy though! Not only the Ostia guys were with us but also the Anziani from l'Aquila because they needed to stay the night to go to stake conference the next day to avoid traveling too much on Sunday. Our house is tiny and we had to borrow some air mattresses but the worst part was cooking for all of them because they ate us out clean of food! We were left with nothing! Working missionaries do eat a lot!

Stake conference was fantastic! Since President Di Feo was released there were a lot of members who were very sad. He was the first stake president in Rome and has done so much for the church here. In fact, I would say about 3/4 of the congregation was crying! A new guy named Paolo Petrollini who is only 32 was called and he seems like he will be a great leader. Everyone who spoke was so inspired and I learned so much from that conference!

Kind of a cool story: I got a call before conference that a man's daughter had left a Spider-man toy in the stake center so I was asked to go pick it up. It turns out that the family was the Marco Petrollini family featured on the Mormon Channel! I know you've probably already seen it but I got to meet him and his whole family: http://mormon.org/marco/. His brother is actually the one called as stake president I think.

Today the Silva family threw me a little goodbye party and it was a lot of fun! We actually have gotten a lot of referrals from them and we watched the Restoration film with them at the party so that was great! One family consisting of an Italian guy and a Filipino lady are really interested in the Gospel and they want to meet with us next week to hear the lessons.

That's about it for now! I'm not sure if this will be my last email or not as a missionary but I think I'll have a little bit of time next week to write a little note and maybe my testimony to seal this whole email saga of two years! I love you guys so much and I can't wait to see you so soon! I love you Dad, I love you Mom, I love you Morgan, I love you Brooke, I love you Heather, and I love you Greg! Have a great and fantastic week! Vi voglio tanto tanto bene! A presto!

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About Anziano Lacey

Clay was born in Rexburg, Idaho, while his parents, Marc and Nicole Lacey, were students at Ricks College. Clay is the oldest of 5 children. He has 3 younger sisters and a younger brother. He and his family live in Apple Valley, California. Clay was the ASB President at his high school. He also wrestled, pole vaulted, and his passion is making movies. He attended BYU Idaho (formally Ricks College) for a semester before beginning his mission.